


In Purgatory

by AnonAnton, braezenkitty



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Denny If You Squint, Gen, Leviathans, Mild Gore, Purgatory, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 18:11:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10314062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonAnton/pseuds/AnonAnton, https://archiveofourown.org/users/braezenkitty/pseuds/braezenkitty
Summary: Being stuck in Purgatory does strange things to people and creatures. Some it drives to bloodlust, some it drives insane, and it always ends up driving its inhabitants to do things they never thought they'd do. But you know what they say: what happens in Purgatory, stays in Purgatory.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [SPN Buddy Writers](https://spnbuddywriters.tumblr.com/) challenge over on Tumblr.

“Ah shit,” Benny said in a low tone, where he lay back against a tree root in the shadows, exhausted, but like as ever in this place, unable to sleep.

Dean hummed in response, equally wiped out, content just to sit and stare into the darkness and dream of the stars that hadn't come out in… a lifetime, or so it seemed.

The crack of a branch in the thicket surrounding them was enough to rouse him as he registered Benny’s words. He turned slowly, raising an eyebrow at his friend. Benny accepted the silent invitation with a tip of his head.

They pushed to their feet, fatigue forgotten in an instant as red gleaming eyes appeared in the rustling undergrowth. The wolves were always the first to show up to a fight. Dean grinned, knowing by the sheer number of paired pinpoints glowing cruelly, that this was going to be one hell of a fight.

“Time to lock 'n load, Benny!” he called gleefully. Benny grinned, and rolled onto the balls of his feet in readiness, his built form more agile than it looked.

“You know we ain't neither of us seen a gun since we got here, brother.” Benny laughed, Dean's excitement rubbing off on him, the thrill of anticipation driving away the grey tiredness.

“Yeah, but there are so. Many. Weapons,” Dean said with a leering grin, shrugging nonchalantly in the half light. He hefted his lashed together blade of bone, wood, flint, and tooth, beautiful with its patina of layered blood and gore.

A shrill animal squeal broke the tension as Dean made the first strike, leaping into the thickest part of the pack. Who knew what the wolves really were, who cared, he thought. They were only the forerunners for the real players. He sensed more than felt when Benny joined him, his solid presence and the partnered yelps and half animal screams proving his efficiency.

“Fresh meat incoming!” Dean yelled gleefully, swinging his blade once more into the nearest wolf-thing’s muzzle. He eyed the new arrival, an old and grizzled creature, humanoid and dangerous.

“That one’s all yours buddy!” he called with a grin, knowing Benny would enjoy the challenge, well matched as they were.

“Well, thank you,” Benny grinned and leapt forward with his wicked claw-like weapon, pointed vampire teeth bared and cruelly sharp.

“It's a Winchester,” said a voice, eerily calm amongst the screeching of wounded creatures, thumps of blade on bone, and Benny's wild laugh.

“Oh God! What is it?” wailed Dean, mockingly, as he spun to face the speaker. “Aaahh! Nooo,” he finished flatly, as he fixed it with an unimpressed stare. “Oh! Oh wait! I know this one— wait— no. No— I got it! Oh. Nope— I—” Dean crumpled to the floor, one hand raised to his forehead in a perfect imitation of a swoon. He lay still, one eye open as he peeked at his confused adversary.

“What the—” the Leviathan muttered, her perfectly put together, immaculate face, masking her true self; stinking black goo and bitter rage. She leaned over him with a frown, her confusion evident as she reached toward Dean.

“Seriously?” Dean asked suddenly, making her flinch. “You guys fall for that every time.” He snatched her extended arm and yanked, making her stumble and lose her footing. He swung his blade from where he lay, beheading her with a spurt of rancid black ooze.

“This needs some kinda one liner,” he told the corpse as he hefted the head and bowled it out of sight, “but I'm just going to leave you for the dogs, 'kay?” The headless corpse just oozed a little more.

“Benny, they never answer, man. It's boring,” he complained, idly slashing a werewolf to the spine as he passed.

 

* * *

 

“What's the point of night here?” Dean asked, staring up at the blank sky.

“I dunno,” Benny drawled, “maybe to fool you into shutting up for two seconds?” A slight smile touched his face as he leaned his head back against a rotting tree stump, closing his eyes.

“But really—” Dean started again, prompting a huge sigh from Benny, “there's less monsters at night. Y'know—” He stood, spinning with arms outstretched in the fresh clearing— one with less bodies. “That doesn’t make any sense. _I_ can't sleep here; why would the monsters chill at night, huh?” He fixed Benny with a glare, who lazily rolled his eyes in return.

“Entertain me!” Dean yelled into the dark, causing a cacophony of squawks and growls to echo through the trees. “Come and get me, fuckers!” He laughed, arms wide, gruesome blade at the ready.

“Oh, brother, you're one crazy bastard,” Benny said with a smile, “I approve.” He rose to his feet just as a streaking white shape leapt into the clearing, a flash of ghostly pale flesh in the grey night. “That's more like it!” Benny growled.

Dean caught sight of another new creature; a giant bug eyed beast. It buzzed around his head and its huge multi-faceted eyes hypnotising him for a moment before he snarled and plucked its wings from the air with his fist, crushing them as he spun it in an arc and sent it crashing across the clearing.

After decapitating a lumbering beast, disembowelling a shapeshifter and repeatedly hacking at a Lamia until it stopped thrashing, the flow of monsters ceased.

Benny stood, gulping in deep breaths and Dean panted, wiping blood, guts and sweat from his face.

“You know, fighting like this— so free— just getting to kill? It makes me kinda horny,” Dean said with a smirk and a shrug, tension still thrumming through his body. He eyed Benny speculatively.

Benny laughed. “I may be just as bat-shit crazy as you, but I don't get off on this shit, you can keep it.”

Dean chuckled. “Am I— am I getting too into this? It feels free, pure—”

“It is that, brother,” Benny agreed.

“I mean, is it _good_ to be so good at this? Here?”

“Dean, you're over thinkin'. We're here, you're the best at this, you stay alive, the monsters fear ya. You should feel blessed!”

“Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're a good friend Benny.” Dean calmed and looked over to his friend. A vampire as a friend, who would have thought it? But he didn't want it any other way now, not now that he knew how good a man he was, monster or not. He hoped they would be there for each other until the end.

Dean slumped, all of a sudden the fight going out of him as a reminder of life _other_ than this flickered through his head. “I can't even remember what it's like to taste any more, Benny. I miss food, _real_ food, but I can't remember it. I know what I used to like— but why did I like it? What did it do? How did it make me feel?”

Benny snorted. “The way you waxed lyrical about pie when we first met? I'd say tastin' shit used to make you smile, made you happy. But it's hard. Losing that, losing those memories, what warm skin feels like, how blood ought to smell, true darkness.” Benny trailed off and Dean grunted, trying to remember if he could still bring to mind the sound of Sam's laugh or the colour of his mom's hair.

A howl ripped the silence to shreds.

He and Benny both jerked their gazes up, eyes searching for those red pinpoints in the undergrowth.

Oh well, he thought, time for reflection later. Or not. Whatever. “Nevermind,” he growled and swing his sublime blade once more.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean and Benny have a little respite and make a lucky find, but that might not turn out to be a good thing.

The days bled into each other in this place, always the same. Sleep was never a necessity, much as Dean wished he could grab a few hours of shut-eye. There was no real delineation between night and day except for a slight darkening of the grey sky. It made it difficult to track how many days he’d been in this place.

Food wasn’t a necessity either, though Dean craved it every once in awhile. The cravings tended to pop up when he was missing Sam or Bobby. He missed the greasy burgers Sam would glare at him over while he ate his salads. He missed pie. He even missed the canned soup Bobby kept around and served them whenever they stopped at his place for a night.

If he concentrated really hard, he could almost remember what it all tasted like… but just as soon as he caught a whiff of a memory, it would slip away and leave him bereft.

“You look like you’re havin’ some deep thoughts over there, brother,” Benny said, his gruff voice and light cajun accent pulling Dean back to reality.

He grunted, shifting against the tree they were propped up against while they rested. “Just thinkin’ ‘bout home.”

“That’s dangerous in this place, chère.”

“I know. Just miss the creature comforts, you know? Like, well, food for one.”

“It’s been so long since I’ve had to eat I don’t even miss it anymore,” Benny said, a slight smirk pulling at his mouth.

“You ever miss, uh…”

“You can say it brother,” Benny said with a low chuckle.

“What do you call it, feeding?”

“Yeah, feeding. And sometimes I do. But mostly I’m glad I don’t need to do it here. No risk of killing anyone doesn’t deserve to be killed.”

“That makes sense.”

They fell into silence again, watching the trees for eyes or movement. The monsters seemed to be giving them a reprieve for the moment, and it seemed almost too quiet. Dean began to get antsy, fidgeting with the straps that held his weapon together. He couldn’t go long in this place without wanting to use it. The urge to slice flesh open and reveal the bones underneath was too strong.

But Purgatory was nothing if not generous in its supply of targets. The trees rustled and Dean’s ears perked up, his eyes squinting into the fog beyond the treeline. Just as his craving for violence replaced his craving for food, a target appeared.

A vampire stepped out of the trees at the edge of the clearing where Dean and Benny had been resting after their last monster battle. Despite being exhausted from that fight, they were on their feet instantly, rushing towards the creature. The vamp cowered though, instead of running, and began whimpering and begging.

“Please, please don’t hurt me,” he said, raising his hands in the air, “I don’t mean you any harm, I’m just trying to get back to my cabin.”

Dean stopped in his tracks, throwing a hand out to stop Benny.

“Cabin?” he said, knitting his brows together and glaring at the vamp. “You have an actual cabin here?”

“Ye—yeah,” the vamp stuttered, daring to raise its eyes and glance between Benny and Dean.

“Where is it?” Benny drawled, flexing his fingers around the handle of his weapon.

“Um, j—just over there,” the vamp said, pointing across the clearing, his eyes shifting back and forth between them.

“That’s a bold-faced lie if I ever heard one,” Dean said with a laugh. He raised his blade and took a step forward.

“No, no, please, I’m not lying! I’ll show you! J—just don’t kill me. _Please_.”

Dean flicked his eyes to Benny to judge his reaction, then returned to staring down the vamp. He didn’t want to leave himself vulnerable to attack by not watching his quarry.

“Well, I kinda wanna see this cabin,” Benny said. “Wonder if it’s defensible.”

Dean considered. The vamp could be trying to lure them into a trap—was trying to, most likely. But the idea of a defensible, closed space was tempting. “Alright, you go first,” he said, jabbing a finger towards the vamp. “You make one wrong move or I get even a whiff of this being an ambush, I’m lopping your head off and sending you straight downstairs, got it?”

“Ye—yeah, okay,” the vamp said. He slowly lowered his hands and Dean and Benny took a step back, allowing him to walk past. They trailed after the vamp on high alert, watching the trees and listening for any sounds that would indicate they were being followed.

 

* * *

 

They walked until the sky darkened, but Dean couldn’t tell if it had been hours or minutes. Nothing attacked them along the way, and all the trees began to look the same after a while. Time flowed strangely here without the fights to break it up. Ahead of them, the vamp pushed through a narrow opening between two trees. Dean and Benny followed, emerging into another clearing. In the middle of the open space stood a small, ramshackle cabin.

“Holy shit,” Dean breathed. He immediately steeled himself, readying his weapon in case the vamp had lied, but the clearing seemed empty.

“S—see? Just a cabin. No ambush,” the vamp said, turning and spreading his hands to indicate the emptiness of the clearing.

Dean looked to Benny, nodding at the right side of the clearing. They split off, making a quick sweep of the surrounding trees. Dean found nothing on his side and he threw a quick glance at Benny to confirm he hadn’t found anything either. They both returned to where the vamp waited, eyes jumping around the clearing. He looked like he was trying not to shit himself.

“Relax, buddy, we ain’t gonna hurt you unless you try somethin’ stupid,” Dean said. He was about to tell the guy to lead the way into the cabin when a branch snapped in the trees behind him, followed by a thud.

Dean grinned and swung his blade. The vamp had begun to smirk, but his head was sliced clean off before it could fully form on his face. Benny ran towards a new rustling sound, and Dean whipped around to see several vampires jumping down from the trees or stepping out from behind them. It _had_ been an ambush.

“Son of a bitch,” Dean said with gritted teeth as he ran to join Benny in the fray. A female vampire with long dark hair cut him off. He hacked at her neck and kept running. Blood and hair streamed out behind her disembodied head as it fell to the ground.

Dean spared a glance at Benny as he saw another vamp running towards him out of the corner of his eye. He was surrounded by four vampires, but was holding his own. For now.

Dean made quick work of beheading the vamp that ran at him, then moved on to the next, fighting his way closer to Benny.

“I can’t believe you’re working with that human,” one of the vamps said to Benny. “You’re a disgrace.”

“Playing with your food is fine, but you don’t make friends with it,” said another.

They were beginning to overwhelm Benny, and Dean now had two vamps on his tail to deal with. He hacked and slashed, finally dispatching them in a spray of blood. He spared a quick glance around to confirm there were no more; all that was left were the three that Benny hadn’t been able to take out yet. He’d managed to kill one of them while Dean had been busy though, and the lifeless body lay on the ground nearby.

Dean ran towards the nearest vamp and slashed off its head before it could turn around and attack him. That left two, and Dean and Benny made quick work of them; Benny using his teeth to rip the throat out of one and Dean knocking the other over and hacking its head off. With the clearing littered with bodies and detached heads Dean finally had a chance to breathe and assess the damage to him and Benny.

“You okay?” he gasped between heaving breaths.

“Fine,” Benny growled. He was clutching his middle and slightly hunched over, his face pale and glistening with sweat.

“Yeah, sure, you’re doing great. One of them get you?”

“It’s just a flesh wound.”

Dean pulled Benny’s arm away from his body glimpsing a deep gash in his side. He was bleeding everywhere, and even though Dean knew vamps could heal themselves fairly well, he still felt his stomach clench with worry.

“Come on, let’s get you inside,” Dean said, letting go of Benny’s arm and moving to his other side. He pulled Benny’s free arm over his shoulders and they limped towards the cabin.

Once inside, Dean gently lowered Benny to the ground where he could lean up against a wall. When Benny was settled he got up to look around for something to help stop the bleeding, but the cabin was empty. No furniture sat on its rough wooden floor and the walls bore no decorations or cabinets.

Dean tore off his jacket, intending to remove his undershirt and press it against Benny’s wound, but Benny held out a hand to stop him.

“I’m fine brother, I just need a minute.” The words were forced out between gritted teeth as Benny panted. His face had lost even more color and the front of his shirt was covered in glistening, bright red blood.

Dean furrowed his brow but nodded, ignoring the twisting in his gut. “Okay,” he said, trying to steady his breath. “Okay, just tell me what you need.”

Benny huffed a laugh and grimaced in pain. Dean kneeled next to him, reaching out but not quite touching his shoulder.

“Sure could use a good feeding right about now,” Benny drawled with a wan smile, his head listing over so he could look at Dean. His eyes flicked briefly to Dean’s neck and he looked away quickly. “Other than that, just some time.”

Dean ignored the look and tried to give Benny a reassuring smile. He had no clue if Benny could survive this, even with his quick healing. The gash was deep. So deep that Dean was pretty sure he caught a glimpse of something other than blood and torn skin when Benny’s hand fell away. Benny gave him a lazy smile back then let his eyes slip close and his head fall back against the wall.

“Benny,” Dean said, placing a hand on his shoulder and swallowing his panic.

“Fine, chère, just resting.”

Dean released his breath and nodded, even though Benny couldn’t see him. He sat back on his heels and settled in to keep one eye on Benny and one on the door. The color slowly drained from Benny’s face and his breaths became shallower. Dean didn’t want to do this on his own. He couldn’t continue on in this place under constant threat without Benny.

Benny might pull through the night if they weren’t attacked again, but their chances of being forgotten by the monsters were low. There was always something lurking just out of sight, waiting for its chance, for any sign of weakness. He and Benny already had giant targets on their backs; him for being a Winchester, and Benny for working with him. There was no way they’d make it through the night without having to fight.

Dean needed Benny to be in top shape, or at least as good as he could be under the circumstances, or they might both end up dead before the grey sky lightened.

Dean made a decision.

Every day that Benny stuck by Dean in this place put his life in even more danger. Dean owed him for that.

“Benny,” he said, his voice quiet and trembling.

Benny didn’t respond. Just laid against the wall, eyes closed.

Dean cleared his throat and repeated himself, his voice stronger. “Benny, come on, buddy, wake up.”

Benny’s eyelids raised and his blue eyes fixed on Dean. He was so weak he was unable to disguise the hunger in them. Dean shivered, but kept his eyes locked on Benny as he pulled the collar of his shirt down.

At the unspoken question in Benny’s eyes, Dean nodded.

Benny leaned forward, baring his teeth, and began to feed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my buddy writer [anonymousantonym](http://anonymousantonym.tumblr.com/) for being an awesome sounding board, brainstorming buddy, alpha/beta reader, and cheerleader. If we were ever stuck in purgatory and you were a vamp, I'd totally let you feed on me.


End file.
